Championship leaders Fulham will be seeking to end a run of three successive draws with a victory, when they travel to Luton Town on Saturday afternoon.
The last time that these two sides faced each other in the second tier was in 2019-20, their two fixtures produced 11 goals, with a 3-2 win for Fulham at Craven Cottage followed by an entertaining 3-3 draw at Kenilworth Road.
Match preview
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Luton Town ended a four-game winless run with an impressive 3-0 victory away against Blackpool last weekend.
Sonny Bradley's header on the stroke of half time put the visitors in front, before second-half strikes from Elijah Adebayo and Jordan Clark sealed all three points for Nathan Jones's men.
Along with Nottingham Forest, the Hatters have now won, drawn and lost seven games each in the Championship this season and are currently sitting 12th in the table, six points behind the playoffs and a comfortable 12 points above the relegation zone.
Luton head into Saturday's clash after losing each of their last two home league games – 1-0 against Stoke City and 2-1 against Cardiff City. The last time that they lost three consecutive matches in the EFL at Kenilworth Road was in April 2016 when they were in League Two.
The Hatters will be in for another challenging contest at Kenilworth Road this weekend, as they have failed to win any of their last five home matches against Fulham across all competitions, conceding at least three goals in each of their last four meetings.
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Despite drawing each of their last three league games, Fulham remain at the top of the Championship, as last Friday's opponents Bournemouth have also claimed as many points in the same period.
A 1-1 draw with the Cherries at Craven Cottage followed a stalemate with basement club Derby County and a 1-1 draw away at Preston North End. Just one point still separates the Cottagers from Bournemouth in second, while West Bromwich Albion in third have moved to within seven points of the summit.
While extending their unbeaten league run to 10 matches will have pleased head coach Marco Silva, the Portuguese will feel that his side have not taken the opportunity to move further ahead of the chasing pack.
Nevertheless, Silva will be confident of returning to winning ways on Saturday, as they travel to Luton unbeaten in their last four away games, conceding only once in the process.
The last time that Fulham went on a longer unbeaten league run on the road was in March when they enjoyed a spell of eight games without defeat in the Premier League, including victories on Merseyside against Everton and Liverpool.
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Team News
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Luton midfielder Luke Berry is closing in on a full recovery from a knee injury, but is set to remain sidelined this weekend.
Jones is unlikely to make too many changes, if any, to his starting lineup, though Pelly Ruddock-Mpanzu and Fred Onyedinma will be hoping to force their way into the first XI after starting on the bench against Blackpool.
As for Fulham, Ivan Cavaleiro (groin) and Nathaniel Chalobah (calf) remain sidelined with injuries, while Terence Kongolo is struggling with fitness issues and will be assessed ahead of kickoff to see if he can feature this weekend.
Top goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic, who is hoping to avoid a third successive game without a goal, is set to lead the line up front, while Bobby Decordova-Reid will be hoping to return to the first XI at the expense of teenager Fabio Carvalho.
Captain Tom Cairney could be handed just his third start of the campaign in centre-midfield ahead of Harrison Reed, while goalkeeper Marek Rodak is set to start between the sticks once again ahead of Paulo Gazzaniga, who has seemingly lost his place in the starting lineup.
Luton Town possible starting lineup:
Sluga; Burke, Naismith, Bradley; Bree, Lansbury, Mpanzu, Bell; Clark, Adebayo, Gomes
Fulham possible starting lineup:
Rodak; Odoi, Adarabioyo, Ream, Bryan; Seri, Cairney; Wilson, Carvalho, Kebano; Mitrovic
We say: Luton Town 1-2 Fulham
An entertaining contest with plenty of goalmouth action could be on the cards at Kenilworth Road, as both sides have consistently shown an attacking threat in the final third throughout this campaign.
The visitors, who will keen to avoid a fourth successive match without a win, will be the favourites this weekend and should have enough quality to edge out the hosts for all three points.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Fulham win with a probability of 55.06%. A draw had a probability of 24.2% and a win for Luton Town had a probability of 20.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Fulham win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.45%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.43%) and 1-2 (9.64%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.5%), while for a Luton Town win it was 1-0 (6.87%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood.
